The Closest Knock-off Of Apple’s Sport Band Yet

I’ve bought quite a few sport style bands for my Apple Watch with varying degrees of satisfaction. But even the ones I liked quite a lot would never be confused with Apple’s Sport Band close up. They are softer, floppier, and not as smooth. This is not a bad thing at all, they’re just different. More importantly, most of the colors I purchased were way off from Apple’s. I was hoping to get duplicates of Apple’s softest, subtlest shades: Vintage Rose, Turquoise, and Lavender. Instead, what I got was much, much brighter versions of those colors.

However, the Lavender LNKOO band I purchased on Amazon is almost indistinguishable from Apple’s flouroelastomer Sport Band. Since I have Amazon Prime, it arrived in two days; much faster than the eBay bands which had come on the slow boat. The material feels just the same, smooth and firm. The color looked nearly identical to my eye, but I took it to the Apple store to compare it to the real thing and it was hard to tell the difference at all.

The LNKOO band fits the watch just fine. The on-off mechanism is not quite as smooth as Apple’s, and in fact after a few times taking it on and off the watch, the center button bulges slightly. This may not bode well for long-term usage of this band, but for $10, I’m really not expecting heirloom quality. One thing to note: while you can purchase this band in a large variety of Apple-duplicate shades, in either the 38mm or 42mm size, it only comes in the S/M length as far as I can tell. You’ll notice there is no size written on the back of the band like there is on Apple’s.

I’m not going to assume that this band will last forever. But it’s a great copy of Apple’s Sport Band in both color and feel at a fraction of the price. If you’re looking to put together a colorful collection of Apple Watch bands that won’t break the bank, then this might be a good place to stock up. LNKOO bands are available on Amazon for $9.98.

Find more bargain third-party Apple Watch bands here.